History
Burek came into Bosnian cooking from Turkish borek; Sarajevo's tourism board quotes the Bosnian Wikipedia, which calls it a specialty taken from Turkish cuisine. In Sarajevo the name is kept for the meat version: the cheese, spinach and potato pies are sirnica, zeljanica and krompirusa, and locals say all pitas are pita but only burek is the real thing. Buregdzinica Sac on Mali Bravadziluk is named after the metal sac lid, and Lonely Planet put Bosnian burek in its 2012 street food book.
Book a food experience
Tours, tastings and classes from the cities on this page, bookable on GetYourGuide.
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 500g ready-rolled phyllo pastry
- 500g minced beef (or 50/50 beef and lamb)
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 100ml sunflower oil for brushing
- 100ml water
Method
- Heat oven to 200 C; brush a round baking pan with oil.
- Mix the minced beef with chopped onions, salt, pepper and paprika in a bowl.
- Lay one phyllo sheet, brush with oil, layer a second on top. Repeat for 4 sheets.
- Spread a strip of meat mixture along one long edge of the phyllo and roll into a long tube.
- Coil the tube into a spiral in the centre of the pan; repeat with remaining phyllo and filling, coiling around the centre.
- Brush the top with oil and a tablespoon of water; bake 35 to 40 minutes until deeply golden.
- Brush with another tablespoon of water once out of the oven; rest 10 minutes before slicing.
Tip from the editors. If you cannot get kajmak to serve with, plain Greek yogurt salted lightly is the standard accompaniment.
Where to eat burek
Burek in Belgrade
Pekara Trpkovic Slavija ★ 4.7
Pekara Trpkovic on Nemanjina in Vracar runs Belgrade's most-queued burek counter under 300 dinars a slice. Century-old recipes, no additives ever.
TryBurek sa sirom
Pekara Trpkovic Dusanovac ★ 4.5
Pekara Trpkovic Dusanovac is the southern Belgrade sister to the Slavija flagship. Same family recipes for burek, kifle and Serbian pastry items.
Worth the queueBurek sa mesom
Pekara Trpkovic Zvezdara ★ 4.4
Pekara Trpkovic Zvezdara on Dimitrija Tucovica is the eastern Belgrade branch. Same dough, same traditional pita and burek, residential queue.
Worth the queueBurek sa krompirom
Pekara Sava Petrovic Zemun ★ 4.3
Pekara Sava Petrovic anchors Zemun's Glavna bakery row in Belgrade, baking burek and pita through the day for Danube quay traffic. Family-run.
Worth the queueBurek sa sirom
Burek in Ljubljana
Olimpija Burek ★ 3.9
Olimpija Burek sells burek at Slovenska cesta 58, using a traditional recipe from 1979, and says it prepares it fresh every day and never freezes it.
TryBurek Olimpija, prepared fresh daily
Cevapdzinica Sarajevo 84 ★ 4.0
Cevapdzinica Sarajevo 84 serves Sarajevo cevapcici made of 100% beef produced in Slovenia, with a homemade flatbread, at Nazorjeva ulica 12.
TrySarajevo cevapcici with a homemade flatbread
Burek in Sarajevo
Buregdzinica Sac ★ 4.5
Buregdzinica Sac, serving Bosnian cooking, is at Bravadziluk Mali 2, 71000 Sarajevo.
Buregdzinica Bosna ★ 4.4
Buregdzinica Bosna, serving Bosnian cooking, is at Bravadziluk 11, 71000 Sarajevo.
More cities are in research. Want burek covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.